Synbal Joins BioLabs San Diego With A Fast-Track SBIR Grant From The NCI

San Diego, CA /PRNewswire/ - Synbal, Inc., a biotechnology company developing non-viral, cell-based gene therapy candidates for rare diseases, cancer, autoimmune and degenerative diseases, has been awarded a Fast-Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The grant provides Synbal with up to $2.3 million in funding to develop and validate preclinical drug discovery tools for cancer research.  The company will leverage their proprietary next-generation gene-editing platform, Active Genetics, to develop a preclinical model that expresses human drug metabolizing enzymes collectively termed P450.  This model should mimic human drug metabolism in a preclinical setting thus enabling predictive FDA-mandated testing of small molecule drugs.

"SBIR grants are highly competitive and this award validates our Active Genetics platform and our approach to developing preclinical models. We are looking forward to developing reagents that will aid our internal gene therapy pipeline and also aid drug discovery and development with biopharmaceutical partners," said David R. Webb, CEO and Board Member of Synbal and former VP of Research at Celgene, San Diego.

Synbal has joined BioLabs, San Diego, to continue its SBIR-sponsored research as well as to further develop its proprietary cell-based therapeutics approach for the treatment of rare genetic diseases, cancer, autoimmunity and degenerative diseases.

About Synbal, Inc.
Synbal, Inc. is a preclinical biotechnology company using its proprietary next-generation gene-editing platform, Active Genetics, to develop safer, non-viral, cell-based gene therapy candidates for rare diseases, cancer, autoimmune and degenerative diseases. The company is also leveraging its Active Genetics platform to develop humanized preclinical models to improve drug discovery and development outcomes.